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Legend holds that the catholic priest who
became St. Valentine (Third Century A.D.) fell in love with the blind
daughter of his jailer in Rome, cured her blindness and signed his
last love letter to her (before his execution) "From your Valentine"-an
expression we still use today.
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Swiss and German immigrants to Pennsylvania
were making elaborate Valentines as early as the 1600, but it took
another two hundred years for the custom to catch on for the rest
of America.
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By 1847, three million valentines were being
sold in the US.
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In Worcester, MA, Esther Howland was one of
the first hugely successful mass producers of valentines, making "affordable,
sentimental lace-type valentines" inspired by a lace-paper Valentine
someone had sent her from England.
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Circa 1870 in England, Kate Greenaway created
mass produced cards that were the first to feature rose-cheeked children
which were very popular with the Victorian Brits.
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In the late 19th Century, Vinegar Valentines
were also very popular. These anonymously sent cards were filled with
insults.
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Christie's in London holds an annual antique
Valentine card auction every February. Two 100-year old valentines
sold for $226 on February 12, 1998. Antique cards are particularly
sought by men as an alternative to traditional gifts like chocolate.
Victorian valentines can be worth up to $1,200 a piece.
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The late Henry Uihlein II, heir to the Milwaukee-based
Schlitz Brewing Co. fortune collected some of the rarest valentine's,
so-called "sailor valentines" hand-made in the 1800s by
men working on whaling ships in the Pacific ocean.
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There is a National Valentine Collectors Association,
based in Santa Ana, CA.
Sources:
Herrick, Robert, "Valentines from the Past", Biblio, Feb.
1998, p. 36.
Kinsella, Eileen. "Trends: Antique
Valentines: Love Letters for Collectors." The Wall Street Journal,
13 February 1998.
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